CNN: Peeling off Radiation
Hawaii Company Conducts Training to Remove Radiation in Japan
FUKUSHIMA, Japan —Through CBI Polymers partners in Japan, training sessions were held in Fukushima to show executive management teams of key industries how to apply DeconGel. Approximately 50 people attended the training session. Those in attendance included the heads of construction companies, hospitals, environmental clean-up companies and engineers. After the demonstration, a lecture was held at the Fukushima View Hotel in Fukushima City by Dr. Cham Dallas, an internationally recognized expert on nuclear disasters and clean-up solutions.
Television Coverage
10/17/2011 HNN (CBS)
Galen Ho Recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by the Hawaii Venture Capital Association
Honolulu, HI – Nov. 17, 2011 – The Hawaii Venture Capital Association announced the 2011 winners of their annual Entrepreneur of the Year award, in a ceremony featuring Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie.
Galen Ho, CEO of CBI Polymers, was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in the Clean Tech category for the company’s signature product, DeconGel. A proven, tough, professional, military-grade, solution for chemical and radiological clean up, DeconGel is safe to use and handle, water-soluble, and environmentally friendly.
Mr. Ho has more than 35 years of aerospace and defense experience, having served in a variety of top leadership positions as President and Chief Executive Officer. He was formerly the President of BAE Systems’ Information and Electronic Systems Integration Sector.
The annual event hosted by HVCA and Think Tech Hawaii honors entrepreneurs in several categories including Clean Tech, Biotech, Invention, Social Impact, Dual- Use and Young Entrepreneurs. The Governor spoke about his vision about the importance of entrepreneurship to Hawaii’s economy.
CBI Polymers is a portfolio company of SKAI Ventures, led by Founder Dr. Hank Wuh.
Need a swifter, safer way to mop up
toxic waste? Blue goo may do.
Scouring radioactive waste usually means just that. Scrub with soap and water, pails and brushes. Repeat. If it sounds messy, it is — and dangerous too for those exposed to dust and contaminated wastewater.
Hawaii-based CBI Polymers says it’s come up with a better way to clean up nuclear waste. The firm’s blue goo may not look high-tech; all you do is pour it. But as the superabsorbent goo gels, its molecules act as a sponge, binding and encapsulating radioactive molecules. Peel the film off and you’ve got lightweight waste that can be rolled up and disposed of more cheaply and easily than vats of toxic water.
Ailment: Radioactive Fallout
Cure: Blue Goop
Carting away large chunks of radioactive waste from a disaster area like Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is bad enough. But disposing of radioactive fallout that clings to walls, seeps into crevices, and coats rescue vehicles is an altogether more vexing problem.
You can wash off the contamination with soap and water—the traditional method—but that creates sizable reservoirs of radioactive runoff, which in turn has to be trapped, treated, and stored away for centuries. CBI Polymers, a Hawaii-based manufacturer of decontamination products, has developed another option called DeconGel, which can be sprayed, troweled, or painted onto any surface. The blue liquid (which is 95 percent water and 5 percent proprietary chemicals) oozes into microscopic pores and bonds with loose material. When it hardens, it shrinks by about 20 percent, sucking up fine radioactive particles and encapsulating them in its folds.
“Our gel helps regain control of the radioactive material and produces 90 percent less waste than water,” claims Shaun McCabe, president of Asia-Pacific
systems for CBI Polymers, which recently donated 100 five-gallon pails of its cleaner to the Fukushima cleanup effort and hopes to sell hundreds more there. “You can either compact that waste and dispose of it in a landfill, incinerate it and reduce its volume to ash residue, or dissolve the gel in water and then treat the water.”
Scientists working for CBI’s parent company, Skai Ventures, originally had their eye on an entirely different product when they discovered the sticky gel. While researching corneal implants, a careless lab tech accidentally dribbled an experimental compound on the floor. After it dried, workers peeled it off and discovered the floor was cleaner than they had ever seen it before. Amazed at the compound’s cleaning abilities, they pursued the science.
CBI has since enhanced the compound with chelants, additives that bind to lead dust, radioisotopes, and other hazardous materials. The company now markets the product for everything from crime-scene cleanup to decontamination of meth labs and Department of Defense sites. —Adam Piore
APEC Host Committee Selects SKAI Ventures as the Statewide Awardee of the Hawaii Business Innovation Showcase
Statement from Hank C. K. Wuh, MD., MPH, Founder and CEO of SKAI Ventures:
“We are extremely humbled and grateful for this recognition. It is a great honor to be among so many amazing Hawaii companies who we highly respect as leaders of their respective industries. SKAI Ventures, together with the other winners from Hawaii Island, Maui, Kauai and Oahu, will do our very best to showcase Hawaii as a place where technology and innovation can impact the world.
Many talented and dedicated individuals have worked extremely hard over the years to help us fulfill the mission of SKAI Ventures – which is to invent the future, disrupt the status quo and inspire hope. We’d like to thank all these individuals and the APEC Host Committee for providing this wonderful opportunity to introduce Hawaii’s businesses to such a unique and influential audience.”
Television Coverage
8/30/2011 HNN (CBS)
8/31/2011 HNN (CBS)
9/13/2011 KHON2 (Fox)
Hawaii Company Product Peels Away Radiation Fears
In April 2011, KITV4’s Lara Yamada and Photographer Rex Von Arnswaldt journeyed through Japan’s devastated Tohoku Region.
FUKUSHIMA, Japan — For nearly 4 months the Kohitsuji Kindergarten children could only play indoors due to fears of radiation contamination, but in late July something unexpected happened. A Hawaii company, thousands of miles away from them found a way to let them be children again using a special product to peel away their worries.
Television Coverage
8/3/2011 KHON2 (Fox)
8/3/2011 HNN (CBS)
CBI Polymers Receives Export Award From US Department of Commerce
CBI Polymers Inc., received an export achievement award from the U.S. Department of Commerce on August 1, 2011 for its philanthropic work to provide aid in the clean-up efforts of Hungary’s toxic mud spill last year and the more recent nuclear catastrophe in Japan.
Presented by Suresh Kumar, Assistant Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, the award recognized CBI Polymers for its accomplishments in the global marketplace.
“With 95% of the world’s consumers outside the United States, the best way to grow the economy and create new jobs is to pursue international market opportunities. The United States is recognized around the world for its innovative, high-quality, and market leading products and services. CBI Polymers is a great example of an innovative Hawaii company taking its quality American product international. It is fantastic to see CBI Polymers deploy their technology to provide relief to the people of Japan and Hungary,” said John Holman, Director of the Pacific Islands, U.S Commercial Service.
Television Coverage
9/17/2011 HNN (CBS)
Honolulu firm offers decontaminant and training assistance to Japan
Published by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser at 01:30 a.m. HST, Apr 12, 2011
A Honolulu company is donating $250,000 worth of radiological decontamination products and technical services to Japan in response to the nuclear crisis after the March 11 tsunami.
CBI Polymers LLC will ship 10 pallets of its DeconGel decontaminant to the Tohoku region at the request of the Japanese Medical Association, the company announced yesterday.
A technical and senior executive team from CBI Polymers also has been sent to Japan to help train and assist public health and safety agencies on how to use the product to contain and remove radioactive particles.
“We are all very concerned with the situation in Japan and there has been a broad-based effort to provide assistance,” said former Gov. George Ariyoshi, who serves on the company board of directors, in a statement. “I am extremely proud of the fact that a technology invented and developed in Hawaii will be making a difference to help our close friend and ally during her time of great need.”
DeconGel is a novel polymer-based substance that is applied as a gel to a contaminated surface. It then hardens and encapsulates radiological and chemical agents and allows them to be safely peeled off.
Hawaii Invention Helps Japan Clean Up Radiation
Published on Civil Beat on 04/11/2011
A Hawaii company that invented a gel that can mop up radioactive particles is helping out with radiation clean-up efforts in Japan.
Honolulu-based CBI Polymers has donated $250,000 in radiological decontamination products and services to the Japanese Medical Association. The company invented DeconGel, a peelable hydrogel that binds and encapsulates radioactive surface particles. The bright blue gel can be used to decontaminate objects and surfaces.
The Japanese requested the gel to supplement its public health and emergency relief efforts in the Tohoku region, Japan’s most severely-affected northeastern coast. Ten pallets of DeconGel have been shipped.
CBI Polymers’ donations to Japan come as Japan raised its nuclear threat level from five to seven, ranking it alongside the Chernobyl disaster.
CBI Polymers donates product to Japan recovery efforts
Pacific Business News, Monday, April 11, 2011, 12:44pm
Executives at CBI Polymers are donating $250,000 worth of decontamination products and technical services to aid Japanese recovery efforts following the country’s devastating earthquake and tsunami last month.
The donation comes at the request of the Japanese Medical Association, according to a statement issued by Honolulu-based CBI Polymers, and will aid the removal of radioactive contaminants in the Tohoku region on the northeastern coast of Japan.
The product, known as DeconGel, which can be used as a nuclear decontaminant, was brought to the market by CBI Polymers after undergoing testing by the Air Force for its use in removing radiological decontamination. DeconGel also was used to help Hungary recovery efforts after a massive toxic sludge spill inundated villages in the western part of the country last year.
Eye care campus breaks ground
Published on Saturday, February 26, 2011 By Star-Advertiser StaffAn eye care campus devoted to accelerating biomedical innovation, developing technologies to restore vision for the blind, and building an internationally recognized Vision Institute broke ground yesterday at Dole Cannery Shops in Iwilei.
The tech cluster includes SKAI Vision Institute, a global center for the restoration of vision; Cellular Bioengineering Inc. / Eyegenix, which develop and manufacture artificial cornea technology; SKAI Ventures, the parent venture accelerator focused on the transformation of ideas into technology companies in Hawaii; the Eye Surgery Center of Hawaii, an ophthalmic ambulatory surgery center; and World Children’s Vision, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing blind children to Honolulu for the gift of sight.
U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye served as the keynote speaker. View the article here.
$8M eye care campus in the works
Hawaii soon could be a destination of choice for top-of-the-line eye care if a plan being launched b y Hank Wuh, founder of Honolulu-based Cellular Bioengineering, comes to fruition.
A ceremony announcing his plans for an $8 million campus, encompassing a portfolio of companies focusing on cutting-edge eye surgery and located in the Dole Cannery, was scheduled for today. Wuh and his team hope to tap into what they estimate is a billion-dollar market in eyesight restoration.
The campus will include the Eye Surgery Center of Hawaii, which will have the capacity to perform up to 20,000 eye surgeries a year. Read the full article here.
